In November I quit caffeine cold turkey. The first 24 hours off the stuff was like a scene out of Trainspotting. Think: Grown man, balled up on the couch, sweating, feeling like I was about to vomit. I slept 11 hours straight after I was fully caffeine free. Then a low-grade headache that lasted for a week set in. Fun stuff!
But it was worth it. I quickly began experiencing a bunch of pretty wild benefits. For example, I was sleeping longer and sounder, I lost four pounds (likely due to the sleep), and I was less irritable and generally more chill (e.g., didn’t get annoyed by long grocery store checkout lines, used my horn less, etc).
I didn’t think I was drinking all that much caffeine before I quit it. About three cups a day. But they were big cups, and when I did the math I discovered that I was taking in north of 1,200 milligrams.
The Mayo Clinic says 400 milligrams is the “safe” level of caffeine. Anything more can have negative side effects like headaches, insomnia, nervousness, irritability, upset stomach, and anxiety. And because caffeine’s half life is six hours, I’d basically been caffeinated since 2001.
It’s not easy to say under that 400 milligram threshold today. Caffeine is being added to an ever-increasing amount of food and drinks and we’re taking in more of it. The humble, medium-sized Starbucks drip coffee contains 310 milligrams. A large light-roast has 475. So if you’re downing multiple cups a day, you’re probably in the same boat I was.
How do you know if you’re overdoing caffeine? You don’t have to run complicated calculations. The man who suggested I try this experiment, Trevor Kashey, a friend and mad-genius nutritionist who has all of his clients go caffeine free their first two weeks working with him, has a litmus test to determine if you might benefit from a breakup. “Ask someone to remove caffeine, and watch the look on their face,” he says. If you see the face I had when he told me to try the experiment—a cross between outrage, shock, and existential dread—you’ll probably benefit from using less.
